36 replies to this topic

[Grayedout]

on a std Mini, the fan Sucks the hot air, onto the enigne....

If you mean standard mechanical fan then this blows air from the engine bay through the rad and out into the inner wing !!

To check it stand next to the nearside wing of a hot running engine and feel the temperature of the air exiting !!

If you then fit an auxillary fan to the other side of the fan then this must suck air !

[miniboo]

Dogmatix i believe that the fan on the engine blows air over the rad to cool it. the aux fan also sucks hot air away from the rad. Like Pikey7 says.

The rad is the thing that cools the water that cools the engine ergo (i like that word) the rad is the thing that needs to be kept cool

[Dog]

Not if u turn the fan round

I have always been under the impression the fan sucks cold air into the rad, and exit the hot air onto the engine...

I mean.... to cool and engine, you don't put a hot air dryer on hot water to cool it....

[supermotolee]

right so to make this work (i have a bike fan and motor ) any going to have to reverse it and make it draw the air through the rad and into the wing? not a problem just didnt want the 2 fans fighting each other...

[pikey7]

why would you blow hot air onto the engine?

[Grayedout]

I have always been under the impression the fan sucks cold air into the rad, and exit the hot air onto the engine...

I mean.... to cool and engine, you don't put a hot air dryer on hot water to cool it....

But think where the high air pressure is ??? In the engine bay with cold air rushing in through the grill or under the wing where it is sheltered ???

A min fan would struggle to pull air in from the radiator against this pressure rise !!!

It goes from bay to wing....thats why the fan is marked to fit one way round !!!

[Sprocket]

Now who on a cold day has warmed themselves on the near side wing

Thats because all fans extract the air through the rad into the wheel arch/wing. always has. There is a certain amount of air flow from the air being pushed through the grill when driving along but no where near enough to do away with the fan

[supermotolee]

right understood thanks guys
just for the record i'm not doing away with the origional fan just adding another to aid cooling on hot ays like today
so i'm going to have to make the fan motor spin the other way....

thanks lee

[Clubby1275GT]

just out of interest anyone got any pics of mini's with two fans, possibly even clubmans as driving mine on long journeys is unbearable, windows must be open and i have to keep the heater on else it just gets too hot, so may need a better radiator or an aux fan!

[Purple Tom]

Ok, here's a couple of piccies of my Clubby with an electric fan. The fan was bought from Vehicle Wiring Products and is their smallest 9" model. It fits perfectly inside that little box in the inner wing. I used a relay in the fan switch circuit, as the current draw is reasonably high (enough in my judgment to require a relay for safety) when turning the fan on. The rad fitted without a problem with the fan tie wrapped to the inner wing (3 was all it needed), and kept my race 1293 below 80degrees even on the hottest day (around 25 degrees) with the windows closed and heater off.

And yes, the fan must pull not push if it is mounted outboard of the rad. A 2 core rad for anything over standard tune 998 is a must in my opinion.

[Clubby1275GT]

apart from the obvious cold, normal, HOT, what are the temp readings on a 3 clock gauge? whats normal temp, whats cold, whats hot, or inbetween the three??

i defo want to do something about the heat but either way i lose because i have to take the rad out and i hate doing that! trying to think what would work better buying an uprated rad or fitting a fan?!?!
my engine pushes 73bhp, it revs at about 3k-4k revs at 80mph (can never work it out with my speedo!!) not exactly major power but prob enough to make it so hot on the motorway!

[Dan]

Not if u turn the fan round

Yes, then it just does nothing at all other than waste a few ponies. Fan blades only work one way round. Blades that are designed to work both ways are horribly inefficient.

An aux fan should definitely always use a relay and a fuse (don't use an existing circuit Pikey! Nice wiring advice! ) they draw some serious electrical power.


Yes the hot air goes out under the wing, that's why the snow melts first on that side and why the passenger face level vent is always warmer than the drivers one (unless it's a left hooker of course). As Sprocket says, it's a great place to warm up while de-icing your car!

Edited by Dan, 03 July 2006 - 10:58 AM.

[pikey7]

Thanks Dan! Brain fade day yesterday......

[frostie]

On the subject of wiring....

When i fitted*read bodged* my fan on yesterday, I had planned to run it on a switch on the dash so that when in traffic I could turn it on, but then I couldn't find my wire.

Therefore I just used the wiring that was there for the fan before, and because I have fitted a cheap radiator, I have removed the fan swith in the base of the radiator, so all I did was connect the positive and negative together at the swith end, so that the fan is on all of the time. Will this cause any problems such as melting wires and fuses? I'd like to think the wiring is already fused.

Cheers, Ian

[Dan]

Shouldn't do. It will mean it takes longer to charge the battery though, if it can charge it at all as fans take a lot of power.

It will burn out the crappy standard Rover relay pretty quick though. The yellow relays are a bit hit and miss for quality.

Are you sure it isn't running even with the ignition off at the moment? Some cars are wired this way and I can't remember if the Mini is or not.

Edited by Dan, 03 July 2006 - 02:46 PM.